1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contact printing device wherein a contact printing plate is placed on a film having an image recorded thereon and the image recorded on the film is printed onto a strip of photographic paper while the contact printing plate is in contact with the photographic paper. More specifically, the present invention relates to a contact printing device for use in a photographic printer for making a composite photographic print having a picture frame image and an auxiliary image in combination.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a long strip of photographic paper, which is wound in a roll, is used in a photographic printer, in order to make photographic prints efficiently. It is also known to print an auxiliary image, such as letters and illustrations, in a composite print along with an image of a picture frame recorded on photographic film. A photographic printer for making such composite prints has an auxiliary printing unit in addition to an ordinary photographic printing system. In the auxiliary printing unit, a contact printing plate with a lithographic film having an auxiliary image, such as information, greeting words, ornamental patterns and the like, recorded thereon is placed in contact with the photographic paper in an exposure station of the auxiliary printing unit.
When the photographic paper is initially transported to the exposure station of the auxiliary printing unit, the leading end of the photographic paper may be curled as it enters into a rectangular exposure opening formed in a plate holder for holding the contact printing plate therein, and thus jam against a margin of the exposure opening. To solve this problem, it has been suggested to removably insert a blind or guide plate for closing the exposure opening during the initial paper feeding, for example, in Japanese Laid-Open Utility Model Application No. 63-43138. However, this requires manual insertion and removal of the blind plate every time a new strip of photographic paper is to be loaded and thus is cumbersome.
Furthermore, in a conventional contact printing device, the contact printing plate may be erroneously inserted in the reversed state into a printing position where the lithographic film is positioned in the exposure station. If the operator does not notice this error, many incorrect photographic prints containing the reversed image thereon could be made before the problem is noticed because ordinarily, a large number of composite prints are made from an original.